“Our prayers must mean something to us if they
are to mean anything to God."

One morning in church the pastor noticed a little boy on the very front row mumbling something with his eyes closed during prayer time. It was a very small church, so the pastor could hear the boy whispering, "Tokyo," over and over again. The curiosity of the pastor was stirred, so after the service he went to the little boy and said, "Son, I was glad to see you praying so fervently in church this morning. I think I heard you mention Tokyo a number of times as you prayed. Is there a reason you're praying for that city?"

The child looked up at the minister and said, "Yes sir, there sure is. The teacher gave us a geography test last Friday, and if God doesn't make Tokyo the capital of France, then I'm going to get that question wrong."

Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? I remember praying a few. Of course, God never answered them. They weren't the answerable kind. Have you ever wondered what would happen if God did answer those kinds of prayers? I have and it makes me nervous. It wouldn't be long until we'd be living in a world more topsy turvy than it already is. Take the weather for instance. If you prayed for rain and your neighbor prayed for sunshine, that would mean that God would have to send a little rain cloud to follow you around wherever you went. Can you imagine living in a world in which everyone went around in their own prayer-controlled climate? Some people might go around wrapped in a blanket of fog. Others might be sunbathing in narrow strips of sunshine, and still others could be sledding down hills on beds of snow that  traveled under them. Sort of makes you glad that God doesn't give us everything we ask for, doesn't it?

Now, just because God says no to these wishful thinking prayers, doesn't imply that he does not or will not answer those "out of the norm" or unusual prayer requests we sometimes bring to him. He does and he has many times answered unusual prayers. In our praying, God is pleased when we pray those prayers that will stretch his prayer answering ability. Our unusual requests do this, and many times his answers to those prayers come in unusual ways. I share with you a true story that bears witness to what I'm saying.

The missing contact lens:
Josh and Karen Zarandona shared this true story.
Brenda was a young woman who wanted to learn the sport of rock climbing while she was out west on vacation. Although she was apprehensive about it, she forced herself to join up with a beginners group that was going up that day. For her first experience at climbing, she found herself at the base of a wall of rock that was nearly perpendicular and very high. In spite of her fear, she put on her gear, took hold of the rope, and started up the face of the rock. Eventually, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, whoever was holding on to the rope at the top of the cliff, made a mistake and snapped the rope against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens. You know how tiny contact lenses are and how almost impossible they are to find. Desperately she looked and looked and looked, hoping by some miracle to find the lens, but it was hopeless. So there she was, on a rock ledge, several hundred feet below her and the same above, and with blurry eyesight. Her hope now was that when she got to the top, one of the others in her group, might be able to find her lens in the corner of her eye.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye. There was no contact lens to be found. She sat down with the group to wait for the rest to come up the face of the cliff. As she sat there, she looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of the bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, you can see all these mountains. You know every single stone and every leaf that is on these mountains. You know exactly where my contact lens is right at this moment. Please, help it to be found."

Finally, the time came for them to go down. They descended by a trail to the bottom. As they got there, a new party of rock climbers was preparing to start the climb. As one of them started up the face of the rock, she suddenly shouted out, "Hey, you guys, did anybody lose a contact lens? I just found one." Now that would be startling enough wouldn't it? The contact lens had been found. But even more startling was how she had found it. An ant was carrying that contact lens so that it was moving slowly across the face of the rock, catching the attention of the climber. 

What does that tell us about the God of the universe?  Not only does he see the falling of a sparrow, but also the contact lens of one of his children. God is in charge of even the tiniest of things. Even the ants do his bidding. God uses the improbable to accomplish the impossible. 

Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him this amazing story, he sketched a picture of an ant lugging a contact lens with these words over its head: "Lord, I don't know why you want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what you want me to do, I'll carry it for you."

Brenda's prayer request covered an unusual need, and in response God sent an unusual answer. One that Brenda would never forget.  I sometimes think God lets us get a glimpse of his humorous side by answering those kinds of prayers in the lease expected way.

Maybe today you are faced with an unusual need in your life that requires you to pray one of these unusual prayers. Are you hesitant to present it to God because you wonder if he would answer a request like that. Why don't you pray it and find out? Let God be the judge of its answerability. Just maybe, God wants to respond to that "unusual" need with one of his "unusual" answers.

Pastor Bill